hunters and missionaries

Greetings from Botswana!
Just a quick note to let you know that we've arrived safely in Maun. We left Sunday...flying internationally for the first time together...certainly makes the 19 hour flight go faster when you have someone to talk to (or sleep on!). Arrived Monday in Johannesburg. Brought Paul to the dentist Tuesday morning to try to deal with what was diagnosed as a "dislocated jaw" in Denver only to be told by his dentist that his jaw muscle is "cramped"!? We'll try to treat with heat and meds and hope that it improves (he has only been able to open his mouth about an inch or so since he had a root canal over a month ago). Today (Wednesday) took a quick, 2 hour, flight up to Maun.

On our flight to South Africa we are often surrounded by hunters and missionaries. An odd mix of people neither of which I quite know what to say to..."hope you fail at killing innocent animals...converting savage souls"?? I usually don't say much to them but instead enjoy the movie selections (watched "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "Revolutionary Road" both of which I would recommend but for different reasons. The first, for its creative plot and the latter for its excellent depiction of what Betty Friedan in "The Feminine Mystique" called "comfortable concentration camps." Depressing but worth seeing.).

Our little layover in Johannesburg afforded us the opportunity to go to our favorite little movie theater where we saw "The Reader" (both of us cried when he started reading books onto tapes for her) and talked all through dinner about the complexity of the characters at our favorite Vietnamese/Thai restaurant "Cranks." Neither of which we'll get (good movies or ethnic foods) for the next 2 1/2 months.

Not much has changed in Maun since I was last here in March. We are in the dry "brown" season and the lush green fields and puddle filled roads are replaced by lots of dry sand, clear blue skies and brown/tan thorn bushes. We were greeted by "Fudge" and "Taffy" the neighbors' dogs who seem to have taken up residence at our place (not an uncommon phenomenon if you recall our previous visitors).

We're headed off for an afternoon walk to look for snake spore (tracks). We've heard rumors of some spiting cobras in the area. Yikes! Just a typical afternoon in Botswana before we head back to work tomorrow morning.

I'm glad to be back "home" (however one defines that... at least back at my "home away from home").
Cheers,
Kristy